Book explains how to share Christ with family, friends

What They Need to Hear — Sharing Christ with Family and Friends is the story of how the Rev. Klemet I. Preus helped bring his father-in-law, Lloyd Bingaman, back to the Christian faith he had given up years before.

The new book includes 90 letters Preus wrote to Bingaman over the 18 months preceding his death at the age of 92.

The letters, Preus says, “were my attempt to tell someone who was not a Christian about Jesus. Thankfully, the Lord worked through these letters, and by all accounts Lloyd became a Christian in the months before he died.”

Preus, pastor of Glory of Christ Lutheran Church in Plymouth, Minn., says that “in the process of writing to a family member about Christ, certain lessons about sharing the Gospel with family and friends became apparent”:

Evangelists speak to one person often.

Evangelists answer questions.

Evangelists know they work better in an environment of trust.

No matter how unpleasant, true evangelists will always correct false doctrine when necessary.

Risky as it may seem, evangelists learn to speak the Law.

Evangelists learn to speak what they know of Christ in a variety of ways.

These lessons and his letters, he says, “can be a template for you to follow with your own Lloyd — that person in your life who is questioning God and the Church.”

Included in the book are two post cards that can be mailed — along with a personal message — to a friend or family member in an effort to start a conversation about God. The post cards also are available as free “e-cards” on the CPH website (click here).

To order the book What They Need to Hear ($15.99, plus shipping, item no. 124419), call CPH at 800-325-3040 or visit cph.org.